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Blurred vision
DAMON ALBARN tells
Chris Brown about Blur's new tour and album and the loss
of guitarist Graham Coxon.
 BLUR are
making a welcome return to Liverpool next week - with
their first gig in the city for six years.
But it's a very different
band however to the one that graced the Royal Court in
1997.
Then was the release of
their eponymously titled album, a violent kick against
the Britpop scene which had made their name and the
rebellious tone of student disco classic Song 2.
Now they are a more
relaxed and reflective band. The new album, Think Tank,
recorded in Morocco, has a more thoughtful feel about it.
Although fans who were
lucky enough to get tickets for the sell-out concert will
no doubt notice the biggest change, guitarist Graham
Coxon has left the group.
But despite this singer
Damon Albarn is happy with the new album and the group
dynamic.
He says: "I feel
pretty much as it has always been, just minus Graham
these days.
"I don't think
there's any dramatic change. I think as far as
communication it's obviously easier with three than it is
with four. There's no rocket science to that, it's just
easier to talk to two other people or to make a decision
than it is with four or five or six. It would be even
easier with two."
The story abut the Graham
leaving is still clouded in mystery.
According to Damon they
all turned up in the studio to start work on the first
day for the album only to discover they were missing
their guitarist.
When he returned something
had changed in the group and they decided amicably to
become a three piece.
Damon says: "What
threw us was the fact that we started and the first day
Alex, Dave and Damon turned up but Graham didn't. We were
given no warning of that and later that day we were
informed that Graham wouldn't be around for a couple of
months.
"IT WAS a very
difficult decision. It was, do we just go home now or do
we do something in the studio? And being quite optimistic
positive souls we thought - let's have a go. What
happened is what always happens when you make a decision
like that.
"You do it quite
innocently, not thinking that it's a permanent decision
that you've made. We just started recording and it
sounded great.
"When Graham actually
returned it just didn't work as a four-piece any more and
it was as simple as that. No one was sacked. There was
nothing like that. It was just that it didn't work any
more. And the spirit of Blur was more important than the
individuals. It could have happened to any one of us.
"We like each other a
lot and we have an enormous history together and
obviously are very loyal to each other but at the same
time we know each other far too well to be blissfully in
love, because we're not. We've revealed our
unpleasantness to each other far too often for that to be
even possible, you know, but when we're actually really
making music we're very happy together."
Despite the problems the band jetted off to
Morocco to finish the album.
Perhaps it was the peace
and tranquillity there that helped the band refine their
style and produce the LP.
According to Damon it certainly didn't harm
his creative flow.
He says: "I wrote
most of the lyrics under a cypress tree in Morocco. 'Jets
are like comets at sunset' is an image of the aeroplane
and its exhaust fumes at sunset. They just have the light
behind them and they look like comets.
"'Caravan' is like
when you're looking at the desert every day and
mountains, that sort of thing makes a lot of sense, that
imagery.
"'The trees are
spitting oxygen, it's the rockets we should fear because
if we go and destroy them then we will disappear'.
"So Think Tank is all
about that and what are you supposed to do as an artist
other than express what is going on around you?"
The band have been
together since the start of the 1990s and plan to stay
around for some time in the future.
It is the their feelings
towards what they do that has changed. Damon hints at a
band trying to say some-thing and looking for purpose.
He says: "We're not
teenagers and even the notion of being in the pop charts
now has to have some sense of responsibility otherwise
there's no point in doing it. Personally, I have to feel
like that otherwise I can't do it, I cannot do it any
more unless I feel there's some meaning to it.
"I'm not saying that
we haven't felt that there was some meaning to it in the
past, we've always felt like that but now we have to be
more vocal about it because it's essential for our
identity to know that that is the driving force."
- Blur play Liverpool Royal Court on
Monday 24 November and Think Tank is out now.
Chris
Brown
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